Fan Faire 2009 is just around the corner, and members of the ZAM team are preparing to head to Las Vegas from June 25-28 to cover the event. All of your favorite Sony Online Entertainment games will be featured at the convention, and our group plans to fill the ZAM.com home page with as much news as possible. This year, we'd like you to be a part of our reporting team by submitting your questions on three SOE games!

DC Universe Online and The Agency are two upcoming MMOs that are as different as night and day. One is full of superheroes, while the other focuses on espionage. And then there's EverQuest, the granddaddy of the genre that has been going strong for 10 years. We know members of the ZAM community must have questions on any or all of these games, and we'd love to hear them so we can do our best to get them answered at Fan Faire! Submit your questions by clicking on the name of the MMO above and posting them in the forum thread.

Also, if you're going to be at Fan Faire, there's going to be a ZAM panel held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 27. Stop by to listen to our team, including Jeffrey "Allakhazam" Moyer, discuss 10 years of Allakhazam. You can check out the full Fan Faire schedule here.

If you can't make it to Fan Faire, be sure to tune in for the live webcast of the 3rd Annual Community Address to see what’s new at SOE! They will be broadcasting live from Fan Faire this Friday night, June 26th, at 7:00pm PDT.

John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, is set to kick off SOE Fan Faire 2009 with a community address to more than 1,500 video game fans at Bally’s in Las Vegas. The live event, scheduled for Friday, June 26th at 7 p.m. PDT, will be streamed online allowing both Fan Faire attendees and gamers worldwide to get the very latest updates from SOE. Last year's address was simucast live in SOE games enabled for Vivox voice chat.

This year’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming lineup features the hit titles EverQuest®, EverQuest®II, EverQuest® Online Adventures, Free Realms™, PlanetSide®, Star Wars Galaxies™ and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®. This year's Fan Faire will also feature the upcoming titles, DC Universe Online™, The Agency™ and more.

Get your Fan Faire 2009 News!  This Minicast concludes our Summer Podramedy "As the Hamster Wheel Turns," hear about Hubert, Hester and Emily’s trip to Vegas for Fan Faire 2009.  So tune in! 

You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways head over to the Podcast’s official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe!  Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email.

Don't forget, Podcast #66 will be recorded at Fan Faire!

If you want to pre-register for Fan Faire, you're running out of time!  Pre-registration will be closing TOMORROW (Tuesday, June 16th) at 11:59 PM PDT. Register online at the official Fan Faire website.

The full schedule went up today, so take a look at all the SOE goodness happening.  They can really pack a weekend!  What's this I spy?  A ZAM panel on Saturday?

Hope to see you there!

9 days out from Fan Faire and I'm in List Making Mode. I inherited a bit of travel anxiety and it manifests by over-doing travel preparations, so there are several lists. The Kid List, the Car List, the Must Leave at Grandma's List, the Gotta Buy Before We Go List and the Miscellany That I Don't Dare Forget List. Oh, and the To Do Before We Go List. (I need a Lists List!) Normally I can pack for a weekend in a carry-on, but Fan Faire and working for ZAM seems to eat baggage allowance fast.

The Miscellany list is the one I fret most about (except the Kids list, but I hear that's normal for moms).  Any thing missing off this list and I spend precious time and money on a side trip, and I'm short on both.  It includes stuff like my laptop charger, iPod adapter, digital recorder, camera, approximately 17 USB cables (as it seems *nothing* I have uses a standard USB cable), a hub for the 17 USB cables, and the phone charger, which isn't USB at all.

At the 2008 SOE Fan Faire we saw a very cool Station Voice demonstration.  Two players were chatting via the Station Launcher while a third called in from a cell phone. There's no sign of the cell phone feature yet, but spotted in the June 11 EQII Test Update Notes were these tidbits:

• Station Launcher will soon have a new release with voice capability.
• Station Launcher will allow you to start voice chatting as any of your EQII characters before running the client or while patching.
• Going into game while voice chatting in Station Launcher will be seamless. If you're already chatting, the client will detect this. If you're voice chatting as a different character than you're playing, a new button will appear on the voice bar allowing you to switch (or you may switch in Station Launcher).
• Station Launcher will keep voice chat active after the client closes.

Dan Kinney, on the Station Launcher forums, confirms the good news:

"Yes, the Station Launcher is joining the voice party.  We are working out the final details between each of the games - they each are just a tad bit different.  

You will have this before we get to Fan Faire."

Since you only need a Station Account to use the Launcher, not a subscription, this could make for a very powerful chat tool.

Members of the ZAM team were on the floor of the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center last week to bring you all sorts of information on your favorite MMOs. You can check out all of our coverage on our E3 news feed, but we've compiled all of our noteworthy features and news posts in this post for easy access. So keep reading below and after the jump for our in-depth E3 coverage, from the unveiling of Final Fantasy XIV Online to our impressions on Star Wars: The Old Republic!

ZAM E3 Features

All Points Bulletin E3 Impressions: Andrew "Tamat" Beegle gives us a first look at All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds' upcoming fast-paced third-person action MMOG. While he didn't see any live gameplay, he was highly impressed with the level of depth available in character creation, as well the number of car models and in-game MP3 player.

Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3: The ZAM team had the opportunity to enjoy a private gameplay demonstration of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and everyone was amazed by what they saw. Of course, the team wasn't allowed to record footage of any of the gameplay, but Tamat did get an exclusive interview with SW:TOR Lead Writer Daniel Erickson and Lead Designer James Olhen. Check out the video!

The Potential in Heroes of Telara: Trion World Networks unveiled its new fantasy MMO at E3, and Tamat gives us his first impressions on the game. While he says it's too early to tell if Heroes of Telara will deliver on its promises, he does emphasize it's a beautiful game with some new ideas and improvements to ideas that have potential.

E3 Interview with Jens Andersen: Once you've watched the PS3 gameplay demo for DC Universe Online, check out our interview with Jens Andersen, the game's creative director.

E3 Gameplay Footage of The Agency: The ZAM team was able to get some video of a mission being played out in The Agency. Take a closer look at this espionage action game from Sony Online Entertainment.

A post by Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske of SOE Global Community Relations on the Station.com forums reveals plans to have SOE Postcast #66 at Fan Faire!  It has not yet been determined whether it will be a live 'cast via U Stream or just recorded there. 

"We are hoping to record during our "Late night Gaming" Session Thursday night from 10 PM to 1 AM...  So the OSG and Pox Nora folks will be around.  We can get questions answered from them.

Everyone on the Community team will be around."

If you'd like to submit questions in advance, you can do so in the Podcast #66 Prep thread on the Station.com forums.

Meanwhile, Podcast #64 is up and available, enjoy!

Have you pre-registered for Fan Faire yet?  Don't miss out! Online registration closes at 11:59 P.D.T. on Tuesday, June 16, 2009.  You can do walk-in registration beginning Thursday, June 25, but space is limited and with 1200+ people already registered they're expecting a large turn-out. Secure your spot and register online today!

Sony Online Entertainment has selected its Players of the Year, who will get to attend Fan Faire in Las Vegas from June 25-28. One EverQuest player and one EverQuest II player were chosen for their dedication to their games.

In EverQuest, Palarran from The Tribunal server earned the Player of the Year honor. You can read the poem that was entered for Palarran after the jump.

In EverQuest II, Bownzer from the Crushbone server was selected thanks to the comic strip that was created in his honor, as well as a lengthy commentary. You can read the first comic here, as well as the follow-up comic that acknowledges Bownzer's Player of the Year status. He's a raid leader that will go the extra mile to log in, even when his wireless isn't working.